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Avoid Email Spam Using temporary Disposable Email Addresses

Amit Banerjee — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 10:32:07 PDT

Email spam is the Most Common and Disturbing Element of Internet. Both Geeks and the average user get a lot of Email Spam.You can avoid Spam email messages by Using temporary Disposable Email addresses.

What is a Disposable Email Address ?

Suppose You need to sign up In a Website to Use some of their Service. A typical example may be any File download or Installing Some add on In your Browser.The website asks you to enter Your email address and register.You register with your primary email address and The Website Uses it to spam Your Inbox periodically.

To avoid Such a Situation You can use temporary email addresses That will Be destroyed after a Time Interval. Create a Temporary disposable email address Use that To Register in that site and when you are done Just forget it. No Future SPAM mails !!

4 Web Services to create temporary Disposable Email addresses

Spambox : Using this service you can Create a temporary Email Box which you can use for registering in different Websites or forums.If you wish You can also forward all emails from the spam box to your email address.So if you want to Download Something that requires registration Just create a Temporary email Box using SpamBox and set the Expiry time to 30 Minutes.Sign up in the Download Website with the Spambox email and after you get the confirmation link in your Spam box mail just forget It.

Spambox will create you a temporary @spambox.us e-mail .You can adjust the expiry time of your Spam box and it is Ideal for temporary Sign ups In Websites.

Whspr.me : With Whspr.me you can receive Email messages without sharing your original Email address to anyone.Whspr.me gives you a URL to share.

Suppose you want to register in a torrent site but don’t want to Disclose your original Email address.Just create a n email URL with Whspr and get the Emails directly.you can also Use this service when you wish to Hide your Identity from your Fiends.Just share the Whspr URL and you can send and receive messages.

Whenever an e-mail is addressed to this temporary URL the user will receive it on his e-mail account – but the one who sent the e-mail will never see the address it was redirected to. Hence, privacy is fully protected and communication is still accomplished naturally.

GuerrillaMail : GuerrillaMail is another similar service with which you can create disposable email .Just create your temporary address and reload the homepage to view the Incoming messages.

10 minute mail : Simple and fast.Start creating your temporary email address by just clicking a link.Your newly Created Email address appears In the webpage right after it.You can read and reply to the email messages that you get from the Webpage itself without requiring to login. No Sign ups and Registration required.Available In all The major International languages.

These Services are Much Safer and keeps Your main Email address Free from Spam. Do you Use temporary Disposable Email addresses for signing in to Various Websites ?

Search and Read Deleted Wikipedia pages at DeletionPedia

Amit Banerjee — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:33:01 PDT

If you are Looking for a Page On Wikipedia But found that the page has been deleted for some reason don’t worry. Chances are that You can still read the deleted Wikipedia page Somewhere else.

Deletionpedia is a useful website where you can search and read deleted Wikipedia pages. It consists of more than 60,000 deleted Wikipedia Pages.

You can Browse the Deletionpedia Archive by the Date of deletion, By number of revisions or By the editor.Please note that Unlike Wikipedia, Deletionpedia is Not a Wiki and Users cannot add or edit articles as They can In Wikipedia. An automated Bot searches for Deleted or Missing Wikipedia pages and adds them in the Deletionpedia archive

If you still can’t find the deleted article then You may consider retrieving the page from archive.org or by Using Google’s cache.

Automatically Reply to G talk Buddies when you are Busy or away

Amit Banerjee — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:39:22 PDT

It would be really Interesting to send an automatic message to your G talk friends When you are not at your desk. G talk Autoreply is a Freeware application that can be used to automatically send a Customized Message to your friends When You are Working On Something Important or not present In front of the Computer

Just download The G talk Auto reply application (961 kb). Start The Application and Fill In Your login Details and the custom Message that You want to Deliver To Your friends. You are done.

Once G talk autoreply is on and Someone sends you a Message he Will get the automatic response from your side that You have added In the autoreply setting. Note that This feature works only when you are using the desktop Google talk and Not with the browser based chat feature.

This is the Message that your friends will receive

A very tricky way to avoid IM disturbances while you are working.As for me I Love using Digsby, a Multipurpose chat Client and Its noteworthy that they have this application In Built Long ago which I recently Discovered,

How to Overcome and Skip the Waiting Timer In Rapidshare Download Page

Amit Banerjee — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:39:39 PDT

If you do not have a premium Rapidshare account then You have to face a Timer Screen on every Rapidshare download page.Learn How you can Skip the Timer and proceed Straight to your Download Instantly at Rapidshare.

Install the SkipScreen Firefox extension and You are done.It allows you to Bypass the Waiting Time In popular File Sharing Websites like Rapidshare,Zshare,Megaupload,Sharebee,MediaFire, Depositfiles, Sendspace, Divshare, Linkbucks.

Firefox Update Disabled your addons ? Get them Back

Amit Banerjee — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:38:14 PDT

If the Recent Firefox Update has disabled your add ons try this trick and you can get your addons back .

Much of the Firefox addons are not yet compatible with the Latest Version of Firefox. So while Upgrading to Firefox 3.5 you may find that some of your addons are Missing after the Update Is over.

To solve the problem and get back your Firefox-addons do the following :

1. Type about:config in the firefox adddress bar and click “ i will be careful button”

2. Right click anywhere and choose New—> Boolean. Assign a New name of your new config value as

“extensions.checkCompatibility” and set it to “false“.

3. Similarly create another boolean value with the name “extensions.checkUpdateSecurity” and set the value to “false“.

4. Restart Firefox and You will get the majority of your Add-ons back and working as usual.

The first Boolean function disables the Compatibility checking while the second one disables the update checks.

During a manual upgrade one of my friends Lost all His Addons and got worried.Using the above trick all the addons were restored to their previous states.Thanks Lee

Flickr Adds Twitter Integration : Now tweet your Flickr uploads

Amit Banerjee — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:08:53 PDT

After a long wait Flickr has finally added twitter Integration.Now You can Upload photos In Your Flickr account and share them on twitter automatically

Just sign In to Flickr and Authorize it to post Updates in your Twitter account by Choosing Twitter from the add a blog page .

After The authorization is Complete You will be provided a unique email address to send your photos to flickr Via email. Add That email address to your contact list and send the photo you want to upload.The subject line of your email will be your tweet and the title of your photo on Flickr.You can tweet up to 116 characters, and Flickr2Twitter will append a short Flic.kr URL to your photo/tweet.

And here goes a Sample Tweet from Flickr

Its interesting to Note that Flickr is using its own URL shortener To show the photo Updates as tweets ( e.g flic.kr.)

I think TwitPic will still be the choice of Tweeples for Uploading photos as its simple and requires only your Twitter account to do the job. However Power Flickr users have an added benefit as now they can cross post their flickr uploads on twitter seamlessly.

So get ready to see the New Flickr Short URL’s In your Tweets in the coming Weeks ! [Via Flickr Blog ]

Firefox 3.5 is Available for Download

Amit Banerjee — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:55:31 PDT

Firefox is all set for the major update sometime later today but If you do not want to wait for the update and want it beforehand go ahead and download Firefox 3.5 for your chosen Platform using the following Links.

Download Firefox 3.5 for Windows, Linux and Mac.

Note : Be careful while updating to a Newer version manually. Some of your add-ons might not be compatible with the updated version so you should always backup your Firefox installation completely before Upgrading manually.

Top Features Of Firefox 3.5

1.Html 5 Support ,Treats Videos as Webpages : Firefox 3.5 will let you view videos tagged between HTML5 video tag without requiring the flash player. If you are viewing a page that has been coded in HTML 5 firefox 3.5 will render the video more quickly as if it is a part of the same webpage and not any external flash content. A Superb Improvement that makes video integration more simpler. Just Upgrade to Firefox 3.5 and Try viewing this video without the flash Player.

2.Undo closed Window : Serious drawback of Firefox Being fixed. Well there were keyboard Shortcuts to bring back an accidentally closed tab But it is difficult to memorize each and every keyword. Firefox 3.5 has implemented a restore feature for both tabs and Windows in the History menu so You can easily restore accidentally closed tabs and windows.

What Makes the restore feature interesting is that any Text Typed into the closed window is also restored. So If You have typed in a long comment in a comment form and closed the window accidentally then upon restoring , the comment text is also restored.

3. Delete a particular Site from History : The Updated Version allows you to delete a particular entry from Firefox History. You can selectively Choose Which Sites to delete so in case of any mischief that you have done just make sure you delete them and not the entire history of Firefox.

4. Open tabs in a New window By Just Drag and Drop : Too late To be included but However better late than never. Now you can Open a New tab Into a New Window by Just dragging the tab out of the firefox window. You can also open a tab into a New Window from the right click context menu.

Google chrome and safari 4 has this feature inbuilt already and now Firefox 3.5 Joins the team .

5. Easier and Efficient Tab restoration

Firefox is Known to consume heavy amount of memory and it often results in crashing the browser. Firefox 3.5 has included a Session restore feature allowing you to select which tabs to restore in case Firefox closed unexpectedly. Somewhat similar to Google’s chrome task manager and it’s a much sought after improvement. ( also see : Simple hacks to reduce firefox memory usage )

6. One click Private Browsing Mode added

Quite similar to Google chrome’s”Incognito mode” a New option is added in Tools as “Start private browsing “. Allows you to privately browse the web and it does not stores your Visited pages, Form and Search entries,passwords,downloads,cookies,cache and History. So If you have to do an email check on your friends computer Just hit on the private browsing Mode , Do your stuff and get away.

And here is a wonderful screencast of the new features of Firefox 3.5. Enjoy !

10 exercises to remove Eye strain While Working Infront of Computer

Amit Banerjee — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 10:45:23 PDT

Do you use computers for more than 2 Hours a day ? You may be a Victim of CVS (Computer Vision Syndrome) . Long hours infront of computer can cause eye fatigue, blurred vision, headaches, dry or irritated eyes.Check out Some Effective Eye Exercises and the Reasons of Eye fatigue caused Due to Computers.

Reasons Of Eye fatigue caused Due to Computers

There are plenty of reasons for Eye fatigue caused due to Overuse of computers. Here goes some serious reasons :

1. Computer Users have a fixed posture which keeps The upper Body Fixed for a long Period of time.

2. Continuously Gazing to a Nearby object (the computer Monitor ) leads to convergence Fatigue.

3. The Eye Muscles Do not Get Much opportunity to Move.The Shoulders are kept at a Fixed place which Affects the eyes as well.

4. Overhead office lights and other light Sources Falling on the Computer Screen causes Glares.These glares have an Adverse Effect on your Eye pupils.

5. In general a person blinks 15-20 Times a Minute.But when you are Working in the computer the Blink rate reduces to 5-10 times Per minute due to Continuous staring and Concentration.In the Absence of Adequate Blinking Eyes become Dry and Irritated.

6. Working Too much on computers at night Might affect your Sleep as well.

Check your Workstation for Eye Constraints

Eye stress can be considerably reduced if we adopt to the correct environment at our workplace. Also Sticking to a Schedule and Being more disciplined at work is by far the Most necessary constraint to reduce any kind of Physical stress and strains. Here are some Exercises that Helps to reduce Eye fatigue while you are working for long hours infront of the computer.

Ensure Adequate Light : When we do not provide enough light for the eyes to do their job, we are adding additional and unnecessary strain on the eyes. Be sure to use light bulbs with enough wattage (min 40 Watt for a Moderate room )

Keep your monitors Below Eye level : The monitor should be Ideally placed 5 to 9 inches below Eye level.This causes your Eyelids downward thus maintaining a healthier Blink rate.Adjust The Height of your Seat : For Best Results adjust The seat of the Computer Chair so that the Middle of the computer Screen Is 20 Degrees Below Eye level.

Screen distance and Monitor Positions : The Screen Should Be placed at a Minimum distance of 16-20 Inches from the Eye.There should not Be any light Source behind or in front of your Monitors.So Position the Monitors such that the Room Windows falls in the Side rather Than Back or front.

Use an Anti Glare Screen: The Monitor Emits Harmful radiations that always Affects Your eyes. The Computer Monitors refreshes Every Millisecond and Continuous gazing to the refreshing monitor Makes the Eye pupil think Its day time.This Indirectly Affects your Sleep.

For Laptop and Notebook Users : Rest Your Backbone against a wall if you are Using Your laptop from Your Bed.Otherwise overtime you will lean towards The Computer Which is Harmful both For your Eyes and Spine.

Exercises that reduce Eye Strain While Working At the Computer

And here are a few useful exercises that help in reducing eye strain During long hours infront of the Computer. The 20-20-20 rule and rotating eyeballs work like Magic. Try them and you will feel the difference

20-20-20 Rule of Blinking : Blinking creates an even Film of tears on the Eye Surface that keeps the eye Moist.So You should Blink Very often.Follow the following 20-20-20 Rule of Blinking:

After every 20 minutes of looking into the computer screen,look at any object placed at least 20 feet away. Try and blink your eyes for 20 times in succession, to moisten them.If Possible,Walk 20 paces after every 20 minutes of sitting in one particular posture. Helps blood circulation for the entire body.[Thanks Ramanathan]

Rotate the Eyeballs : While you keep your eyes closed, roll your eyeballs both clockwise and anticlockwise and take a deep breath. Gradually open your eyes while releasing your breath. Continue this Exercise for a Minute or two.You can repeat it three times before getting back to work.” It serves as a good workout for the eyes.[Thanks Digital Inspiration]

Use Tea Bags, Potato and Cucumber Slices For refreshment : When You return From Work cut two thin Slices of fresh potato Slices and Place them Just Over Your eyes.Lie Down and keep these Potato Slices for 10 Minutes.After that Wash your Face with Cold Water.

Before going to Work Keep two used tea Bags in the refrigerator.When you return,Place the tea Bags on your Eyes for few Minutes- this Will relax your tired Eyes.

Press cold cucumber slices gently against eyes 10 minutes before going to sleep at night to prevent puffiness.

Look At Distant Objects : Look at Distant Objects for every 5 minutes in an Hour.This changes the Focal length of your eyes. If you are Inside Your office a better option Would be to go out in the lobby or Balcony.[ P.S : Don’t Lose Your Job ].

Sleep Is important : A good Night Sleep is the best possible Exercise for your Eyes.Without proper Sleep (especially at Nights) your eyes Will Always feel tired.So try to Sleep Early ,At least Before Midnights.Never miss the opportunity of Short naps In the Afternoon.

An Ancient Technique

When you feel tired Take a Clean Eye dropper and a Glass Of Cold Water.Lie Down and using the dropper pour 5 drops of cold Water into each of your Eyes.Take Deep breaths while keeping your Eyes closed for 2 Minutes.After that open your Eyes but Do not Wipe Out your Wet Eye.Let the Water Evaporate Naturally.Repeat This exercise twice a day.

Nutrition For your Eyes

It is also crucial to Include foods that are beneficial for your Eyes health.Some of them Include :Cauliflower,Sunflower seeds,raw cabbage,Watercress,cantaloupes broccoli. Carrot Juice is Excellent in preventing common Eye problems

Use Eye Drops : Keep a prescribed Eye Drop available in your office desk.Whenever You feel your Eyes are irritating and causing you pain use lubricating Eye Drops.This Removes Strain and redness.

Do you Work For long hours in front Of the computer ? Have you a Better Tip ? Share with us in comments

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3 ways to Prevent USB Drives from Auto running Programs

Amit Banerjee — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 12:12:00 PDT

USB drives can be a security threat to any system and it can be used to autorun harmful programs in your computer.Know how you can prevent USB drives from auto running programs.

Recently one of my Friends at College showed me a way to hack my XP password without logging In By running a Batch File.I was totally amazed by the trick. He later explained me that the Batch file was stored in the USB and When i Plugged in the USB drive it runned the program automatically and i never Knew of it.

So I decided that I should turn off USB autorun and prevent the autorun of programs from USB drive.

Prevent the autorun of programs In USB drive

When Inserting a USB drive in your computer you can prevent the autorun of programs by holding down the Shift Key. Do not double click on the USB drive Icon in “My computer”. Instead right click and select Explore. If you double click The USB icon and If the USB Drive contains any autorun.inf file then it will start executing itself. So you better be careful.

This is a manual process and you have to remember it every time you insert a USB drive in your computer. However the Next process requires One time Investment .

Turn off Autoplay on all Drives

This windows trick can be used to turn off autoplay in all your Hard drives(including USB Drives )

1. Go to Start – Run. Type gpedit.msc in the Run box. and hit Enter. This will Open the Group Policy editor.

2. Navigate to Computer Configuration –Administrative Templates.Double click On administrative Templates and then Double click On System.

3. You will see “System Highlighted on the Left pane. Scroll Down and Select “Turn off Autoplay”.

4.Double Click it and select the Radio Button “ Enabled” . Next pull down the Dropdown and Select “All drives”. Click OK and You are done.

Now You need not Bother about autorun.inf files in USB drives.

Use a USB – Disk Security Software

If you are no geek and want a Simple Solution try Using any of the following Utilities :

USB 1.3.This Utility detects the autorun.inf file In the USB drive and renames it thereby preventing its running by the system. You can turn Autorun On/Off from the system tray and Its Very friendly to use.

USB Disk Security : My favorite and I have seen many of my Friends Using it. What it does that whenever you enter a USB drive into a System it scans the Drive immediately and denies access If it finds an Autorun.inf file or any kind of executables that may harm your system. You can select the individual files and Move them to “Vault”. This prevents Autorun of programs from the USB drive all together.

9 ways to Find Unregistered and Interesting Domain Names

Amit Banerjee — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 13:49:17 PDT

Looking for new Domain Names ? See Unregistered Domain names and register Them Straight away !

Domain pigeon can be used to find Unregistered domain names.The homepage features a List of currently Most popular Unregistered domain names.Just Hover Your Mouse over an Unregistered domain and It shows you How many people are currently Interested In that particular domain.It shows you In real time as The domains are registered.You can also Search and sort through Unregistered domain names according to their popularity or In alphabetical Order.

What makes Domain pigeon Unique is that You can see How many people Looked at a Domain and How many Clicked back.The domains that Get more attention darken In color.Registered users (one time fee of 15 $) can see a larger catalog of domains.(Note : The site doesn’t Sell domains.)

Instant Domain Search : As you type In a domain name it checks the availability of .com,.org and .net domain names.The added advantage is that you can find additional information about an already registered domain.( e.g Who is Hosting,Alexa traffic chart etc).The site also Shows you a rough estimate of the Registering Costs with different registrars (If available)
Domai.nr Looking for peculiar Domain names ? If the domain name that you are looking for isn’t available and You want something Unique or peculiar then Head straight to Domai.nr.This site lets you search for Unconventional Domain names (e.g blog.gs) in case its .com version is not available

Brandgopher :Simple and Smart .Type in the Domain name that You wish to see and it shows you whether .com,.net or .org Domains are available or not.Additional tools include querying the WHOIS information,View Alexa traffic chart etc.You can Build a list of your Interested domain names and Search them all at once.Moreover,you can email your list to anyone.(Also see Brandbucket for some cool domain names and Brands).

Domjax.com : Domjax Tells in real time whether a .com extension of the domain is available or not.The added feature is that You can also See whether boutique extensions such as .co.uk,.net,.edu etc are available or not.Just Hover your Mouse and See the information about a Domain in real time.You can also Find additional Information like Owner info,Traffic info,Html validator URL trends and other SEO tools.(A Similar site is AJAXwhois )

Some Domain name Search Engines :

Xona Domain Search Engine : Finally Try the Xona search engine.It does not handle any domain name registration but it is a unique domain hack search engine that calculates all the possible permutations and combinations of web domains for you.

DomainsBot :Enter your Primary Keywords or compound Statements and this website shows you the list Of available Domain names.It can be useful when you want to narrow your search according to your ideas.Add The Search bar To Firefox and Start Searching ! .( DomainsBot was founded in 1999 by Max Ralli and Daniel Ruzzini, then 18-year-old college students)

Dislexicon – Takes common words and adds suffixes and prefixes. It even gives you the meaning. This site is great for finding short domain names that look like they could be real words.

JustDropped – This site lets you search for domain names that have recently expired. You get a few searches for free with limited results.

Do you Know any Website that does a Similar Job or even Better ?